The difference between SEO and SEM is simply that Search Engine Optimization is part of Search Engine Marketing or Search Marketing as it is widely known. Both processes aim in increasing visibility in search engines.
SEO is about optimizing your website to get higher rankings in the organic search results while SEM goes beyond SEO. It involves other methods that can get you search engine traffic like PPC advertising.
SEO VS SEM
As you can see in the SEO Vs SEM diagram above, a typical search engine’s results page (SERP) includes two types of results. The first one is the paid search results and the second one is the organic search results.
Paid results are usually denoted with the letters ‘AD’ (and sometimes in a different color) to help users distinguish them from the organic results. They are shown on top and below the organic search results.
To get your website to appear on top of the ‘paid search results’, you need to use PPC (pay per click) ads to bid and win one of the top positions.
You can do this through the different PPC platforms offered by search engines to advertisers.
For example, Google Ads is the advertising tool of Google, Microsoft Advertising is the ad platform for Bing, each search engine has its own tool.
To get your website to appear on top of the organic results, you need to use good SEO practices. In summary, this means, having an SEO friendly website and publishing content that satisfies the intent of the user for a particular search term.
Both processes (SEO and PPC) make up what is generally known in digital marketing, as Search Engine Marketing or SEM in short. Here is a visual representation to help you understand the difference between these three terms.
Let’s examine SEO and SEM in more detail to understand how they work.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
For the purpose of doing a comparison between SEO and SEM, it is important to start with the definition of SEO, so that it is clear for everyone what the difference between the two is.
SEO is the process of optimizing your website for the purpose of getting free traffic from search engines. Traffic coming from SEO is also referred to as organic traffic.
SEO is important because the majority of search engine traffic goes to the top of the organic results. So, if you want to get traffic from search engines without paying for it, your website needs to appear in one of the top 5 positions.
An SEO optimized website is easily understood by search engine crawlers and this increases the chances of ranking higher in SERPS (search engine results pages).
SEO Overview
There are 3 main types of SEO: technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.
Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing your website for the crawling and indexing phase. With technical SEO you ensure that search engines can crawl and index your website without any problems.
The main components of technical SEO are:
- XML Sitemaps
- Canonical URLs
- Pagespeed
- Mobile-friendliness
- Site structure
- Website security
On-Site SEO refers to rules you can apply on individual pages and content so that they optimized for specific keywords.
The main components of on-page SEO are:
- Page title optimization
- Meta description optimization
- URL optimization
- Image optimization (through the use of ALT Text)
- H1 Tag optimization
- Content optimization
Off-site SEO refers to the process of getting references (backlinks) from other websites for the purpose of increasing your website’s trust in the eyes of search engines.
For beginners, this may be confusing but try to think about it like a ranking system where the website that has the most references, ranks higher. References, in this case, are links coming from other websites to your site. That is also the reason why off-site SEO is referred to as link building.
To avoid any misunderstandings, it’s not only a matter of how many links you have pointed to your website but also from where these links are coming (and a number of other factors).
Resources to Learn More About SEO
- SEO Tutorial for beginners – a detailed step-by-step tutorial to learn the important elements of SEO.
- SEO Certifications – a list of great courses to learn the secrets of SEO and get certified.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is a digital marketing process with the goal of increasing visibility in search engines either by getting organic traffic through SEO or paid traffic through PPC advertising.
Search Engine Marketing is over and above SEO but it’s only a subset of digital marketing.
Digital marketing includes other channels you can use to increase your website’s traffic besides SEM and SEO like social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing and content marketing.
Why is SEM traffic Important?
Search Engine Marketing traffic (either through organic SEO or Paid Search Advertising) is considered the most important source of Internet traffic because it is targeted.
It is widely accepted that people use search engines to find a solution to a problem, an answer to a question or to learn how to do something.
So, when searchers click on a website from the search results or click on an ad, they are more likely to convert. The relevancy of the displayed web sites and ads makes SEM traffic more valuable than any other source of traffic.
Facebook and Twitter are trying to optimize their advertising platforms to utilize targeted traffic but still, traffic coming directly from search engines has a better ROI.
Does SEM help SEO?
Despite what many people think, SEM does not help SEO. If you use PPC to target specific keywords and get search engine traffic, that does not positively or negatively affect your SEO efforts.
SEO rankings are decided after taking into account hundreds of factors and SEM or PPC campaigns are NOT one of them.
PPC Overview
Through paid search advertising you essentially buy advertising space in the search engine results. So, instead of trying to rank in one of the top positions organically through SEO and get free traffic, you pay to appear in front of the search results.
The most well-known advertising agency for PSA is Google Ads (formally Google Adwords). Through Google Ads, you can get your ads to appear in the Google search results and you pay only for the clicks on your ads.
This is also the reason why the whole process is called Pay-per-click or PPC.
Here is an overview of the PPC process:
- Create an account with a PPC platform (for example Google Ads)
- Specify for which keywords you want your ads to appear in the search results
- Create your ads (search engines currently show only text ads in their results)
- Set your daily budget and MAX CPC (the maximum amount of money you want to pay for clicks on your ads)
- Run your campaigns and monitor the results
Once your budget is exhausted your ads will stop running. An important point to note is that while you pay to get your ads shown on the search results, it is not guaranteed that they will show on the top ad positions.
This depends on competition and how much you are willing to pay per click to secure one of the top ad placements.
Resources to Learn More About PPC
- Digital marketing training courses – a list of the best courses to follow to learn PPC marketing.
- Google Ads Guide – a getting started guide for beginners to the most popular PPC platform.
SEO Vs SEM: Which is better, SEO or SEM?
Despite the fact that SEO is one of the two components of search engine marketing, many marketers when they refer to SEM they mean PPC advertising.
Basically, they consider Paid Search Advertising as being the only component of SEM. In this case, we can do a comparison between the two.
Cost
Organic SEO is generally the best marketing tactic for long-lasting results. Websites that rank high in the organic results for their target keywords, can get free traffic 24/7, industry recognition, and enjoy all the benefits of SEO.
Websites that use PPC can still get targeted traffic from search engines but they have to pay for it. Once they stop the paid campaigns, the traffic disappears.
It’s important to note at this point that although SEO traffic is generally considered to be free, it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to get to the top organic results for popular keywords.
The search space is highly competitive for all industries and you need to make a considerable investment to secure one of the top positions.
You will have to create high-quality content consistently (which is a very costly process), hiring an SEO expert to help with the SEO process and the optimization of your website with hundreds of SEO rules.
So, which is more effective cost-wise, SEO or SEM? Definitely SEO. It might require an initial investment but once you get to a point to rank high for the keywords that matter for your business, you can enjoy the ride and the ‘free traffic’ 24/7 without worrying about advertising budgets.
Time
Another major difference between SEO and SEM is that it takes a lot of time for SEO to work and generate results while PPC is almost instant.
So, which is better depends on your overall digital marketing goals. If you want to get traffic fast then you can start with SEM (paid search advertising) and in parallel work on your SEO. If you want to create a long-lasting online business without relying on paid traffic, then SEO is your answer.
Ease of learning
For beginners, there will be a learning curve to learn SEO and PPC but from my experience, you can become a PPC expert faster than an SEO expert.
The reason is that PPC has fewer rules compared to SEO. Once you learn how to use a PPC platform, you can start experimenting with PPC campaigns. You can run pilot campaigns with a limited budget, analyze results, and then expand your budget and create more campaigns.
Plus, with the introduction of artificial intelligence in SEM platforms, your job is easier since many of the complicated tasks we used to do in the past (like manual bidding for ad placement) can be done automatically by the AI algorithm.
On the other hand, to learn SEO, you’ll have to understand how search engines work and in particular how ranking works. If you take into account that search engines use hundreds of rules when deciding the order the results will appear for a particular search term, you can realize that it’s a lot of work.
The good news is that there a number of online courses to speed up the learning process and build your SEO skills fast.
Risk
When your business depends on SEM, you need to consider the risks involved with SEO and PPC.
For SEO the greatest risk is Google algorithmic changes. Google is the biggest search engine and also the major source of traffic for any website. A few times per year they release changes that affect the organic results. During these changes, it is possible to lose or gain rankings and traffic.
If you gain traffic, that’s great but if you lose traffic, it may take a considerable amount of time to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it (if it’s possible to fix it).
For PPC the greatest risk is advertising costs. The cost per click is increasing year by year and if you solely depend on paid traffic, you may reach a point that the cost of advertising goes above the acceptable levels. This means to stay in business you may have to increase prices but this may reduce sales and profit.
From my 20 years of experience in the industry, the best way to handle these risks is to use both SEO and PPC as part of your SEM campaigns. Depending on your business model, you can get started with PPC as it can generate faster results but in parallel, you need to work on your SEO.
The ideal scenario is to reach a point where you can get targeted traffic from both channels so that if something goes wrong with SEO or PPC, your business will not be totally affected.
Key Learnings
SEM Marketing has two components, SEO marketing, and PPC marketing. Although SEO is technically part of SEM, many people when referring to SEM they mean the process of using PPC ads to get traffic from search engines.
In general, Search engine marketing is a critical digital marketing channel. If you want to create a long-lasting online business, you need to use both.
PPC can get you faster results but you will have to keep paying for the traffic, SEO takes longer to generate results and requires a bigger initial investment.
Both processes aim in increasing a website’s visibility in search engines for the purpose of getting highly targeted traffic.
That’s great Alex. For business beginners SEM is best when they are going to starting. if they wants long time business they must need to do SEO part for their website.
hi Alex,
This post contains great information for SEM . I feel the contents of your post will help me a lot as i am beginner in SEM.
Hi William
Thanks a lot for your comment. Good luck with your search engine marketing efforts.
Alex
100% useful and accurate way to convey and clear difference. I would love to say SEO is best at all. Its shows how much your are strong in strategies that search engine bring website data in SERPs from search engine database.
The great information about marketing. This is useful and i feel article above can help me as beginner on network marketing. Thanks a lot
Hi Alex,
Which is better SEO or SEM because i am bit confuse here, i had gone through many blogs some people are referring SEO and some are SEM so kindly write more about my question.
It depends on what you want to achieve, SEO is more long term while SEM covers both SEO and some other areas such as PPC which is immediate because its paid.
So basically, SEO is an aspect of SEM but how useful both are to you depends on what your goals are IMO.
Pretty good information Alex Chris about SEM it’s very useful for me…..
Thank you
Thank you for explain the difference between the SEM & SEO. It’s really useful to me as a beginner.
Hi Tony
Glad I could help.
Thanks
Hey Alex.
Since the change of the way Ads is placed. How much traffic goes towards the adwords compared to the organic results?
I think i remember a thumb-rule that was 10/90 for the old resultpage (10% goes towards adwords) How is it now?
This is very helpful to me. I’m just new in SEO and I’m trying to identify what are the difference between SEO and marketing
Hi Mark
Thanks for commenting. Hope the difference between SEO and SEM is more clear now.
All the best
Alex
With the huge difference in click-thru rates between organic searches and paid ads, SEO can definitely return a higher ROI. Of course, PPC will drive immediate clicks while SEO may take up to 6 months or more to really take effect (drive significant traffic gains). Good article, spot on.
Hi Mark
Thanks for your comment. I agree with you 100%.
Alex
Hi Alex.
I understood the difference between SEO & SEM. I am with a company which is into website designing, hosting and Digital Marketing.
I am very new to this kind of Business. Can you please advice me how to start with to find prospective customers.
Fencha
Through this article, I understand the difference between seo and sem. I checked many websites but here i found points which are relevant. SEO and SEM both are parts of digital marketing.
Hi Abhi
That’s correct. SEO is one of the main part of SEM, which is part of digital marketing.
Thanks
Alex
I had trouble understanding the difference between SEM & SEO. I always thought they were similar or the exact same thing.
Hey alex, perfectly describe the difference between SEO and SMO. I have learned a lot from your blog
Nice content. I was looking for diffrences between SEO and SEM and I am in right place.
Very well explained!I have learned many great things from your articles. I have been checking out all of your blogs as well , thanks for sharing this.
Hey Alex, from what I understand SEM include SM, Emails marketing and PPC in contrast to SEO that is organic search engine rankings?
Hi Ron
Search Engine Marketing encapsulates both PPC and SEO. In other words SEO is part of SEM. Internet Marketing is SEM + Social + Mobile.
Hope this helps
Alex
Thank you for this useful information. A great detailed, clear and concise article about the difference between SEO & SEM. Even better explanation with the Google Image showing clearly who has paid for advertising and who has good rankings. Thanks.
Keep posting these kind of articles it inspires to every internet newbie like me.
Continue your good work.
A Great article on understanding SEO & SEM. Helpful info for a mid career entrepreneur that realizes that the digital economy is one that cannot be ignored.
That’s a great article, my clients are always confused between SEO and SEM, I will actually send them this link because I get really tired of explaining the difference every single day PLUS I won’t be able to explain it any better than you did. Thanks for this great information.
Thanks for this wonderful post I really got many valuable information through it. As a learner it’s not so easy task to understand ROI quickly but this post tell a lot.
Great article, means a lot. I think SEO is for the people that can be patient and wait but SEM is for businesses that want profits as soon as possible. In the long run, SEO is definitely better than SEM because it’s natural and free once you establish your rankings. Thanks again.
Hi
I agree with you 100%. SEM is almost instant while SEO takes time to work but in the long term, SEO is a better approach.
Thanks
Alex
Great article, i have had to explain this to quite a few people, i always like to add that a strong SEO specialist knows how to combine the techniques of both SEO and SEM to give the client the best value, and in turn, ROI
Great article, especially, for the beginners and clients who might be confused as to what these (SEO & SEM) terms mean. Through this simple post, it has now become clear that SEO helps improve the organic search engine rankings, while SEM helps increase leads and sales through PPC Advertising. Thanks Alex for such a useful information!
Hi Pooja
Thanks for your comment. All the best in your SEM efforts!
Alex
Hey Alex,
Thank you for this impressive post. From this I got a clear idea regarding the differences between SEM and SEO. Previously I thought they are like siblings but actually they were like cousins!
Thank you for your amazing article.
Hi Jayaraj
Very well said! The can be considered like cousins for sure!
Thanks
Alex
The blog is really nice. It helps to clearly understand the difference between SEO and SEM.
Really appreciative and informative efforts that you have made to write and share this article with us.Thanks for sharing us. It is very useful and informative article for me because i had no idea about SEM and difference of SEO and SEM before reading this article.
Hi William
Glad I could help you clear out the difference between the two.
Thanks
Alex
Nicely explained sir difference between seo and sem. Thanks for sharing such a nice information.
PPC do drive instant traffic but I prefer SEO over PPC. Organic ranking has long term leverages.
Hi Jenny
I agree with you. Organic traffic has a higher ROI in the long term.
Thanks
Alex
In Simple language i would say, You spend money, Found in top results but your website is not optimised or have usefull content then user will not stay, so rather spending money on PPC you should focus on SEO and Optimise your website with Good Content and user friendly experience for Users. Organic Rankings stay for long duration.
PPC can be great as a starter move but it only lasts as long as you are paying, whereas an Organic Optimized website on page 1 keeps you in the view of clients for a much longer time and you own it.
Hi Alex Chris,
Thanks for sharing amazing article about SEO and SEM. Your article is very clear and readable for us and all beginners.
Thanks for the helpful information discussing the differences and similarities between SEO and SEM. The information was enlightening because a search engine optimization company like the one that I own is relatively new at starting. We believe everyone should always check out their sources because every different perspective is very different so all approaches can be understood differently.
Jon
The balance between SEO and SEM must be one of the most difficult things to do for a search engine with revenue source is “only” advertising.
SEM is the paid marketing in exchange for website traffics, these are GDN, Facebook Ads, Social influencers, email marketing, affiliate, referral program. SEM will bring the traffic to the website instantly, the more a business spends on advertising through these channels, the more traffics they get. The visibility of a website is, therefore, gaining organic search from customers who saw the ads, clicked on the ads, visited the website, remember the brand, then searching whenever they need.
Therefore, the foundation of a website is the key element of SEO. It provides relevant information on a business that all search engines like google, bing, yahoo understand when crawling the website, then showing this relevant information to any customers who search for it. The better SEO preparation for a website, the better results a business will benefit from its organic search. Without SEO foundation, the spending on SEM is a waste of resources & gaining nothing from organic search
Both SEM & SEO are interacting with each other to maintain & improves website traffic. Paid marketing is now getting more expensive than before, when the cost of per click goes up, the number of clicks will be reduced. Therefore organic search will help a website to offset the traffic in the long run & minimize the marketing budget.
Amazing explanation about SEO and SEM and i learn something new things and strategies about SEO and I have read many blogs related to seo and sem but here i found something different so thank you very much for sharing such an informative post and keep posting on different topics because i am waiting for your next post.
Hi Yukti
Thanks a lot for your comment. Good luck with your SEO and SEM strategies.
Alex
This difference between SEO and SEM is very clear. This article is very helpful for people who search for SEO and SEM. Thanks you very much. Your blog is well detailed about Seo as well as Sem.
Hi Chaitanya
Thank you as well for commenting.
All the best
Alex
Thanks, Alex for your great post. This guide covers almost all things of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. I think this is one of the best articles on SEO. Keep writing such posts further.
Hi Rob
Thanks for your comment. Glad I could help!
Alex
Great article, means a lot. I think SEO is for the people that can be patient and wait but SEM is for businesses that want profits as soon as possible. In the long run, SEO is definitely better than SEM because it’s natural and free once you establish your rankings. Thanks you
Hi Abdulwaheed
I agree with your comment 100%. SEM can generate results faster than SEO but to build a bullet-proof business, you definitely need to get SEO working.
All the best
Alex
Thanks for sharing this article. The main difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO is an unpaid strategy while SEM is a paid strategy. SEO and SEM are basic strategies that will help you improve your visibility and performance in search.
Here is the basic definition:
SEO is a key part of your digital marketing strategy which assists in optimizing your website for the purpose of getting free traffic from search engines.
SEM is a digital marketing process with the goal of increasing visibility in search engines like the Pay Per Click (PPC) ads and paid ads on Google-specific platforms (Google My Business, Google Shopping, etc.)
Hi Stephen
That’s a great summary of the differences between SEO and SEM.
Thanks for your comment.
Alex
Thanks for sharing amazing article about SEO and SEM. Your article is very clear and readable for us and all beginners.
I think SEO is for the individuals that can be patient and stand by however SEM is for organizations that need benefits at the earliest opportunity. Over the long haul, SEO is unquestionably better than SEM on the grounds that free once you build up your rankings.
That was an amazing article about SEO and SEM, it helps me in understanding the difference between SEO and SEM.